ART Habens Art Review ART Habens Art Review - Special Issue #89 | Page 181

Caren Kinne ART Habens encouraging of each other. Professors were also supportive, particularly in giving students the flexibility of experimentation, and allowing us to find our own way to achieve our project goals. Little of my project development process has changed over the years. I utilize sketchbooks to jot down notes, and create quick thumbnail sketches to work out ideas, and later refer back to. It was during my time in the graduate courses that I began to hear about the concept of visual culture. Historically in the art world there is often an elitist stigma of what constitutes something to be labeled as art: essentially traditionalist views of what art is. Hierarchal categories such as fine art, craft or kitsch are frequently mentioned. Of course, some of the most notable artists were the ones who abandoned the status-quo, were rejected from the formal salons, or transitioned from commercial design to a studio practice. So when I first learned about visual culture it really resonated with me. Essentially the idea that art, in one form or another, is all around us. In the United States, and I am sure many other industrialized nations around the world, we are bombarded everyday with visual imagery and design. From clothing to book covers, furniture, buildings and landscaping to TV and cinema and boxes on the shelf at the grocery store, design and aesthetics are all around us. Having grown up during the computer age, I can't help but notice how the concept of visual culture as only become more cemented in our world with that revolution. I am old enough to remember life before computers, but also young enough to have had computer class in elementary school. As technology improved we have only added additional means to display visual imagery every day. This combined with the Post Modern support for appropriation, breaks so many of the old concepts of what art is or could be. And that is quite a liberating idea. 21 4 06 Special Issue